Reviews

Rather than a historic seinen, it's better to think of this manga as a gory action shounen set in a generic feudal Japan (almost none of the characters / events depicted in it are real, and even the weapons they use are quite fictional).

If you look at it that way, the story is very engaging and well rounded, and its only downside (apart from a somewhat clumsy first volume) is the unnecesary cruelty displayed by one of the characters (even if you want to portray a crude world, you don't need to intentionally go out of your way to create the most sadistic character you can imagine...).